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My Scottish memories: Edinburgh part II

Are you a fan of Agatha Christie? Well, if you are, read on and find out what she’s got to do with beautiful Edinburgh. You can also read on if you’re just interested in Scotland and Edinburgh

After we got back from Stirling we wandered a bit around New Town, Edinburgh. We came across St.Andrew’s square which reminded me of the Trafalgar square in London. Of course, we had to do a quick snoop around Hard Rock café and my husband bought himself a T-shirt ( he has one from Florence too while I have one from Lisbon). We walked down passed the old-fashioned Jenners department store to the Princes Street. For a change it wasn’t completely foggy so we got a good view of the Edinburgh Castle and the Calton Hill which we climbed the next day. Furthermore, there was the Gothic-style Scott monument and the grand Balmoral hotel on the left side. Tired from our lovely day trip to Stirling we walked back to our hostel and called it a night.

When we woke up the next day it was pouring heavily again but we weren’t disheartened and continued our exploration of Edinburgh. Firstly, we went to the nearby Museum of Childhood on the Royal Mile. I always like to visit free museums :). We saw all sorts of toys from cars to spooky porcelain dolls to board games and more. Secondly, we walked down to the Princess Mall where we pretended to do some window-shopping just so that we could dry off a bit. Even though we had umbrellas and solid sneakers we were already half-drenched. Afterwards, we visited another free museum; the Scottish National Gallery. I saw a few famous paintings but honestly the museum didn’t impress me much.

St. Cuthbert’s church was built in the 19th century at the same place as 6 other churches before it. We entered the church which was empty and a lady approached us and started talking to us about the church. In the end we got a free guided tour of St. Cuthbert’s. Among other things she showed us Tiffany’s stained glass window and a small chapel where Agatha Christie got married for the second time. The chapel has golden mosaics but it’s not as magnificent as you would imagine but then again Agatha Christie wasn’t really an ostentatious person so it suited her well, I think. After all, this was her second marriage to the archaeologist Max Mallowan. I love her detective stories and I am especially fond of David Suchet’s portrayal of Hercule Poirot in the TV series/movies. Then we visited the neighbouring church St.John’s. It’s bigger and has a more elaborate interior than St.Cuthbert’s.

St.Cuthbert’s

St.John’s

I wanted to see the Charlotte square which is the best example of the Georgian style square. There’s also the Georgian House and even though I like visiting period homes we didn’t go in because I thought the entry was a bit steep. At this point we needed to dry off again so we escaped from the rain in the nearest Starbucks. Alas, we forgot one of our umbrellas when we left and when we returned to look for it, it was gone!With only one umbrella we hastened back to the warmth of our hostel.

Later in the day the rain stopped so we decided to go to the Calton Hill. Unfortunately, it was too muddy to climb the Arthur’s Seat (have you seen the movie One day? I love it!) so we only did the Calton Hill. However, we weren’t disappointed with the views from the Calton Hill. You can see the Edinburgh castle, the Holyrood Palace, the Old Town and the New town and you can see as far as the sea. It’s definitely one of those places that you really shouldn’t miss when visiting Edinburgh. n.b. we were really unlucky with the weather so the photos don’t do justice to the beautiful views

Calton Hill

In the evening we went to several pubs to celebrate my husband’s birthday. We listened to some band in the Whistlebinkies Live Music Bar, had some more drinks in the World’s End pub and finished the night at the Bank Hotel Bar.It was a great night out!:)

The next morning we went to Glasgow but I’ve already written about that. I just wanted to add that we spent another night in Edinburgh (in a Travelodge hotel which was cheaper than the hostel we stayed at before ) after we got back from Glasgow. We didn’t do much apart from walking up and down the Royal Mile again. I also wandered around Jenner’s department store and I tried to photograph some squirrels around the Royal Palace (the Holyrood Palace). I totally forgot to mention in my previous post about Edinburgh that we went to see the Greyfriars cemetery because of the story about Greyfriars Bobby-a dog who became famous in the 19th century because he supposedly guarded the grave of his deceased owner for 14 years until he died. Dogs are the best, aren’t they? (and cats!!).

the Scottish parliament

Holyrood palace

Greyfriars Bobby and me:)

So what else did we do on our final day in Edinburgh? Well, we had the most delicious hamburger ever. To this day I haven’t had a better one. We had that hamburger in a pub whose name I don’t remember but the pub was in the Cockburn street (who knows why I remember the name of the street;) ). If I ever go back to Edinburgh ( and I’d love to do that) I’m going to find that pub and eat that hamburger again! And climb the Arthur’s Seat 🙂 So that’s it about our week in Scotland in July 2012.

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Oh I so want to go to Edinburgh – it looks such a fab city. I’m not quite sure why I haven’t yet! I hope you remember the place you had the burger… I Love burgers! And to say it’s the best one you’ve ever had… Thanks for linking up with #MondayEscapes

Edinburgh’s a great city and while I’ve been there as a child on day trips from Carlisle and later as an adult for a 30th birthday party I think there’s so much more that I could explore so clearly I need to get back there! #mondayescapes

Shame about the weather but it IS Scotland…the St John’s church looks stunning inside. I haven’t been to Edinburgh in ages… and certainly never climbed Calton Hill – the views look great. If you liked the film One Day – PLEASE read the book …it’s sooo much better! Thanks for linking to #citytripping

I didn’t know Agatha Christie was married in Edinburgh! I didn’t know she had married the same person twice either LOL Your post made me realize that I didn’t explore Edinburgh enough while in Scotland. In truth, both my visits were day trips from Glasgow, so I only got to see the basics. But I did go to a ghost tour! They are fun. In a scary way! 😀

P.S. Sorry for dissappearing, I was in my “introvert hibernation” mode 😉 I’m still not quite fully social again, but almost there 😉

This was a very timely post for me to find via the #weekendwanderlust link up because we are leaving for Edinburgh in less than 3 weeks. I suspect the weather you experienced was more par for the course (to use a golf metaphor) than not, but hope springs eternal that we’ll have sunnier days. We’ll bring all our rain gear to try to inoculate ourselves. (When we did that during a visit to Ireland, we had ridiculously sunny weather after what had apparently been 3 weeks of the more common unremitting rain.). I’m a Zentangle enthusiast, so the ceiling of St. John’s calls to me. (Feel free to remove this link, but if you want to know what Zentangle is, you can read about it here: http://www.boomeresque.com/what-is-zentangle-and-is-it-habit-forming/ ).

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